Several months back my friends and I rented a condo on the beach for a week. The first day, one friend made her way to the ocean and found a perfect spot, laid out her towel under the shade of a beach umbrella, and settled in comfortably.
Not 10 minutes later the owner of the beach umbrella approached and requested the $20 rental fee. A little surprised, already settled in and somewhat unsure how she might have missed the sign, my friend fished out some cash and enjoyed her spot in the shade for a few hours.
This is an example of a bait and switch, a marketing tactic I hate, and while a $20 beach umbrella isn’t expensive, in some cases the cost is in the thousands of dollars and massive time and energy. Here’s how it shows up in marketing and why I hate this tactic so much…
The most common method of a bait and switch is when a company offers one thing and delivers another. For example, ‘join our high level, super duper, all-you-need mastermind and get all the support and accountability you need to become a singing super star!’ All that’s missing is the fine print *actually you’ll need to arrange your own accountability group and weekly voice coach, support is restricted to bi-annual group calls where 250 people will have 60 minutes total to ask all their questions, and your emails will go unanswered for weeks!
The real problem here isn’t just the bait and switch, where you’re expecting one thing due to copy or messaging and get another. The true failure is that these companies fail at the number one rule of business: do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it.
I include it because this feels like a bait and switch and most clients won’t think that you got overwhelmed and made an honest mistake. They’ll get offended, feel tricked and believe that it was an intentional oversight designed to get your money without delivering the goods.
And we wonder why people ask so much about return policies! When you’ve been burned, everything looks suspicious.
Another bait and switch is the surprise upgrade, especially of products or features that were assumed to be included. Sometimes, this isn’t even a charge collected by the original business. For example, a while back I signed up for a great “all in one” video editing, hosting, publication service. I was really into the service until I had to connect an external storage account from Amazon to get my videos to play.
What? I have to buy something else for this to work correctly?
The problem with this bait and switch is that it’s not usually understood up front that there’s an additional cost to consider (which may have made a competitor’s pricing model a better deal) but also that what you’ve purchased usually doesn’t work without it.
Imagine buying a car and not knowing that you needed registration tags, insurance, and gasoline to run the thing. You’d have an expensive machine sitting in your garage, unusable. We think it’s silly because everybody knows that’s an associated cost. True, but only because it’s so commonplace.
One of the best ways to avoid making this mistake yourself is to include a FAQ “What other expenses will I have to incur if I do this program / purchase this product?”
Be honest there too, if your client has to have a certain computer, photoshop, a dedicated assistant, fly to Bali or buy a new wardrobe to work with you then say so. It’ll filter out the people who can’t commit 100% (and they won’t get good results anyway, right?) and being clear up front is always preferred to the surprise charge.
The final type of bait and switch is commonly known as the “free trial offer.” A free trial itself is not a bad marketing practice, only when that freebie turns into an annual or monthly subscription fee, membership charge or maintenance fee, it is truly a bait and switch.
Especially if you make it near impossible to cancel, reach your team, or opt out before the charges begin.
Here’s really why I hate it: if you automatically begin charging my account without a notification or allowing me to opt out at the beginning, then your business is making me do more work. I have to put it on my calendar and remember to cancel, often can’t find my login, waiting for a reset password email, ask for a refund, deal with your customer service team, confirm the cancellation next month too… see how much work I have to do?
That’s why the free trial bait and switch is so popular among marketers – because people are lazy and will forget, meaning you get a month or two of cash before they make the effort and most won’t ask for a refund.
But I ask, wouldn’t it be easier, some say better, to just provide kickass content and so much value that people want to pay you? Again, the real problem with the bait and switch is that it relies on fooling people and that’s no way to build the know, like and trust factor.
The tough thing is, even honest marketers fall into these traps if they’re unorganized or forgetful and then don’t deliver as promised. If you’re concerned that your own programs, products or services might accidentally become a bait and switch, it’s time to create a system that guarantees you deliver every thing you promise, so you don’t fall prey to this marketing tactic I hate.
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